The ol' ball and chain

I have four younger sisters. Three of us were married in the last 2 years (poor dad's pocketbook!).

The three of us are SO completely different in our personalities and how we live our lives, and how we met and courted our husbands.

My sister Katie and I were talking last night on the phone about how wonderful marriage is, and how nobody ever gives it enough credit. As a wedding planner, I always ask people the month after their wedding how married life is and they always say "about the same!"

It's pretty disappointing to me that a life-long decision to be with someone isn't more celebrated. So, I'm celebrating, just a bit. Maybe it's because I miss Clif (he's away at school for another 6 weeks) or because two people, out of the blue, meet each other and decide to spend the rest of their lives together. That's not only weird, but remarkable.

Clif & Jess

Clif: Wilderness Ranger by day, ski patroller when the snow falls, tall, dark, and handsome, quite serious and always doing something... dishes, cooking dinner, cleaning, organizing, hunting, fishing, training Maxdog.
Jess: Marketing and Event Director, short, blonde and not-so-serious, blogger in the evenings, clothes collector always, hates cooking, sometimes cleans - but mostly just the bathroom - loves running, hiking, and biking with Maxdog.
Married: September 15, 2012
Started dating: August 2005
Jess's view on marriage: "Hell yes I'm married!!"

Katie & Kyle

Katie: Campus Administrator at Red Rocks Community Church, kind at heart but not afraid to tell you when you're wrong, best babysitter around, always dresses to perfection, the closest thing to my mom without being my mom.
Kyle: Missionary with Fellowship of Christian Athletes, hilarious always, TALL, always smiling and caring, super playful and a kid at heart.
Married: June 8, 2013
Started Dating: Summer 2011
Katie's View on Marriage: "Marriage is completely underrated"

Sarah & Jeff

Sarah: Contract Administrator at Foothills Paving, extremely logical, frugal but somehow has a closet to die for, loves hiking and being in the mountains, always happy.
Jeff: Estimator at Foothills Paving, Minnesota born and raised - which means an awesome accent!, hard working, mountain man, bought Sarah and axe for Christmas that cost more than her engagement ring (much to Sarah's delight).
Married: February 2014
Started Dating: Spring 2013
Sarah's View on Marriage: "It's about caring for someone else's happiness above your own. He's better at it than I am."

Tis the season

This photo is a bit blurry - darkness tends to do that to a photo.

This year a few of my friends and I got together to carve pumpkins for halloween. Mine is the one with lots of holes in it. I call it the "EHOLA virus" pumpkin.

I'm very bad at Halloween things. As a child, my parents sat us down and told us that our family no longer would be celebrating the devil's holiday. Of course, as a first grader, I was devastated. From then on, I would be deemed as an outcast at school and thrown to the wolves. 

Literally, wolves.

Okay, not literally. But, I did have extremely short boyish hair and couldn't celebrate Halloween... AND my mom packed tuna sandwiches on homemade, crumbly bread and all my "friends" (children really can be terrible) wouldn't sit next to me and would ask "What IS that smell?" 

Anyway, I would kill a baby seal for my mom to make me lunches now. Her bread really is amazing.

That's all for now... I'm crossing lines.

Blogger Sunday

It's Sunday!

And, the perfect day to spend an extra few moments cozied up in your fluffy white (because everyone's bedspreads are white, right??) comforter with a cup of warm lemon water, your pup, and a good book.

OR, check out these sweet bloggers I'm loving right now. Read on!

My Whole Food Life
Everything on this blog is delicious. And it's all healthy - like, REAL LIFE ingredients. Amazing. Take this lentil-carrot-everything else- burger. Try it. You'll love it.

OR! The simple 5 minute banana ice cream! I've made it a few times. It's the perfect dish to make with those bananas that have been sitting in your freezer for ages.

The Love Nerds
I went to college with this lady - she's a total sweetheart. And she has great articles about "dating your husband," dinner ideas, crafts out the wazoo, and party planning tips. I'm a fan.

Pink Peonies
This blogger is a Morman from Utah, but is far from the one-piece underwear (they exist here). She's adorable and prissy and I want her closet. If I heard her talk, I would probably vomit (does Utah have a Valley?) but I love her skirts and shoes. K. That's all.

Why it hurts to sit... and stand... today.

The Nike Training Camp app on my phone is amazing. No matter the time of day or night, I can do a 15 minute targeted workout, or an hour-long calorie-blasting workout, AT HOME. My dog looks at me for two minutes because I put my running shoes on and he thinks he gets to go outside, and then he hides in his bed and watches me "shuffle" across the living room. I can always feel him rolling his eyes as my wildly-flung arms knock over the lamp.

Well, much like my blogging life, my exercise life has been... well... nonexistent to say the least.

And I decided to do a week of morning workouts on NTC.

So, up at 6AM! Squats! Squats! Jump Squats! Low Squats! Punching in the air and the Squats! Squats. Squats... Squats still? OMG, I'm still doing Squats. How am I going to fit into my jeans, my legs are going to be HUGE SQUATS.

Needless to say, I felt like this:

Then, the next day came along...

And as it turns out, this lady kills squats more than I do. Because I can't sit. Or stand. I am doing the one-hand-on-the-toilet-seat to lower myself down to pee thing. I may give birth to a baby I didn't know I was housing. It's that bad.

Tomorrow: Shoulder day. 

Reading: #girlboss

I have a secret (Jess, it's not a secret when you post it on your BLOG). Right. I had a secret.

I purchased a Kindle Paperwhite.

Actually, my dad purchased it for me, so gifts can't be guilty.

Since working in bookstores for a good 3-4 years, I've tried to wage a war against Amazon.com because they admit to their goal of putting brick and mortar bookstores out of business. What A-Holes.

However, I live in a world where I no longer run a bookstore and can purchase any book I want at cost. #sad

My parents came to visit and I lusted over Mommasita's Paperwhite and viola! Dad gave me one.

I have been reading veraciously ever since. Picture a lion devouring a book, gnawing on the cover, rubbing the pages [or screen?] lovingly up and down its cheek...  stopping there.

Anyway, I have been up to a lot of reading and I feel like I have been reunited with an old friend. It is just an old friend that is deceptive and works for an evilly- brilliant company that is set on world domination.

Whatever.

Back on topic. I read #GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso.

My two cents:

What an amazing woman. She tells her story, albeit rather crudely, about working her ass off, maintaining focus, and not even realizing how big her company was going to be until... it was BIG. American success story.

Not a piece of literature that I would send to my grandma, but maybe something I'd send to my 18 year old sister. She likes clothes and hashtags.

Recommend it, I do (says Yoda).

Love love.

AMAZING! Marcel the Shell part 3 is here!

New and noteworthy. Need I say more?

(oh, and I'm back, just like Marcel)